Werthead Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 12 hours ago, Toth said: Meanwhile my gaming OCD continues. I still tried to play a bit of Settlers 4 here and there to relax (and to pat my back for making it run on Windows 11, somehow), but now got an odd itch for Battlestar Galactica. I ended up installing BSG Deadlock, whihc I owned for quite some time as part of a bundle, but never got around to playing it. I must admit, I thought the premise a bit daunting, but now that I played the first few missions, it reminds me quite a lot of the naval battles in Empire Total War, just with forced pauses. And that's a very favorable comparison. It is quite fun to stay on an Cylon's tail and within your firing arcs and hammer their weak points/making them eat nukes until they are down. BSG Deadlock is a hugely underrated gem. The base game is very good but the extra DLC campaigns they've added with a greater story focus are also excellent, and the game modes using the modern Colonial Fleet (plus the Pegasus in some scenarios) are splendid. Probably the best is the 33-influenced mission with you constantly having to jump out ahead of the pursuing Cylons with the clock continuously ticking down. Toth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 My special edition of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth arrived at my office today. Got out my Sephiroth statute... that glorious Son of a Bitch is too tall to stand on the bookshelves in my office. So I cleared off the shelf under my TV and moved my Cloud figure (from the Remake special edition) off the shelf to sit across from him. He's very much "Fallen Angel" looking, so I have it sort of hidden by the bookshelf as you come in, but he's easily visible from my desk. Jace, Extat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 If you're going to make a new Terminator video game, than a Salvation-influenced survival game is not the worst idea ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toth Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 On 2/29/2024 at 7:14 PM, Werthead said: BSG Deadlock is a hugely underrated gem. The base game is very good but the extra DLC campaigns they've added with a greater story focus are also excellent, and the game modes using the modern Colonial Fleet (plus the Pegasus in some scenarios) are splendid. Probably the best is the 33-influenced mission with you constantly having to jump out ahead of the pursuing Cylons with the clock continuously ticking down. Okay. This sounds kinda interesting. Well, I'll see whether the game keeps me entertained enough to get myself the DLCs. Right now I'm still at the beginning of the campaign playing Cylon whack-a-mole with Manticores and Adamants around Caprica and Picon. Am I correct in the assumption that I have to just... keep churning out ships and park them in separate fleets at important planets in order to be able to get enough free time to actually continue the story eventually? Also I'm cursing that Cylon Nemesis that spontaneously decided to go full on Kamikaze, taking out my freshly built Manticore in the mission where I had to destroy hacked satellites. Very, very annoying... I guess this means I need to focus fire better to prevent stuff like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jace, Extat Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 BSG:Deadlock, I never really got into it, but I was really high on the Devil's Lettuce when I tried so... maybe another attempt is in my interest. I've severely curtailed my videogaming since I disavowed Hearts of Iron 4 and Total War, so who knows how another foray into the game may unfold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 (edited) 15 hours ago, Toth said: Okay. This sounds kinda interesting. Well, I'll see whether the game keeps me entertained enough to get myself the DLCs. Right now I'm still at the beginning of the campaign playing Cylon whack-a-mole with Manticores and Adamants around Caprica and Picon. Am I correct in the assumption that I have to just... keep churning out ships and park them in separate fleets at important planets in order to be able to get enough free time to actually continue the story eventually? Also I'm cursing that Cylon Nemesis that spontaneously decided to go full on Kamikaze, taking out my freshly built Manticore in the mission where I had to destroy hacked satellites. Very, very annoying... I guess this means I need to focus fire better to prevent stuff like this. I had one primary fleet that dealt with most stuff and a secondary one for when the primary one was too far away. In early game, Manticores are surprisingly decent as long as they don't get swamped (if you treat them as big fighters that can let off the occasional missile burst, that goes a long way), the Adamant is good for carrying Viper squadrons (pack enough and the Vipers can take care of an entire enemy fleet for you) and a batch of 3-4 Rangers stacked on top of one another and moved as a single unit which can dish out colossal missile solos, although the Adamant is cheaper and probably better at doing that with its closer-range guns, smaller missile silos but being able to carry a squadron apiece. If the enemy closes range, splitting the Rangers at a decisive moment above the enemy can be an effective move (Rangers, unlike every other Colonial ship, have better ventral guns than dorsal ones, so park them above the enemy and unload). All early ships on both sides are pretty weak though. IIRC the key is to get ticking along to get the Artemis battlestar (then the Minerva, Jupiter and, in show-era missions, the Mercury) and its incredibly powerful flak field. The second you have flak, the game becomes much easier: Cylon basestars lack guns, so with flak fields operational you can denude an enemy ship of missiles and fighters and then tear them to pieces with your railguns. The battlestars can sit right below enemy ships and hammer them to pieces with dorso salvos, plus unleashing occasional missile salvos. Just remember that your battlestar crews and Viper pilots are very dumb, so will happily launch into flak (dying instantly) and will fire missiles directly into flak (destroying them instantly), so you need to get the timing right on switching off the flak fields to do other stuff. I forgot I did some videos when the game first game out. This shows an Artemis (OG 1978 Battlestar), a few Manitcores and a couple of Adamants (I think) taking out four Cylon basestars, which feels impossible but was doable by using flak and sending my Vipers off on a wild goose chase (drawing the Cylon Raider force after them, through a crossfire from the heavy ships first). You can see a bit when the Artemis starts taking too much damage to one side so it flips 180, reverses its flak field and gets back into the fight with its heavy guns. My main mistake here was not bringing enough Vipers. The Cylon Raiders survived in enough numbers that they would have wiped me out if the mission hadn't ended with the loss of the last Cylon capital ship. Edited March 2 by Werthead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toth Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 4 minutes ago, Werthead said: I had one primary fleet that dealt with most stuff and a secondary one for when the primary one was too far away. In early game, Manticores are surprisingly decent as long as they don't get swamped (if you treat them as big fighters that can let off the occasional missile burst, that goes a long way), the Adamant is good for carrying Viper squadrons (pack enough and the Vipers can take care of an entire enemy fleet for you) and a batch of 3-4 Rangers stacked on top of one another and moved as a single unit which can dish out colossal missile solos. If the enemy closes range, splitting the Rangers at a decisive moment above the enemy can be an effective move (Rangers, unlike every other Colonial ship, have better ventral guns than dorsal ones, so park them above the enemy and unload). All early ships on both sides are pretty weak though. Thanks for the write-up! Yeah, the Manticores are surprisingly good. My current strategy was to have a wolf pack of four of them just slowly chewing through the enemy formations while my Vipers are defending the leading Manticore as a missile screen. Unfortunately during the mission with the Athena I already noticed how frustrating it was to get my Vipers and Raptors out of the way for me to fire up the Battlestar's flak field, particularly when my Raptors were still hanging around to boost my firewalls. Case in point, the Cylon hacking so far is the most frustrating aspect of the game. Once in an early mission I had all three of my Manticores' fire solution systems hacked and them all disabled. I had to finish most of the enemies with my two Viper squadrons from the shipyard until I realized that I can fire again even without fully repairing the damaged systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Cylon hacking is irritating but to be honest half the time I ignored it and it never really turned into a huge problem. The Cylon ships that can hack are also made of toilet paper, so a single Viper squadron can usually take them out in relatively quick order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 (edited) Meh. It was my birthday. My brother should have showed up, raid or no raid. And in the end, it's just a video game. Edit: Oh. Apparently he was leading the raid. From your responses I still say he could’ve found a replacement ahead of time to take his place. Edit 2: And in the end, WoW is a video game. Edited March 2 by A True Kaniggit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 (edited) I mean, that puts a whole different spin on it than the situation you originally described to be fair. 'I missed a family birthday that happens on the same day every year' is a whole different issue to 'my brother asked me to take three hours out of his day to do him a favour', especially since I don't think I'm the only one who read it with the distinct implication you asked him last minute. Wow, this thread is now AITA. Edited March 2 by polishgenius Rhom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 42 minutes ago, polishgenius said: I mean, that puts a whole different spin on it than the situation you originally described to be fair. 'I missed a family birthday that happens on the same day every year' is a whole different issue to 'my brother asked me to take three hours out of his day to do him a favour', especially since I don't think I'm the only one who read it with the distinct implication you asked him last minute. Wow, this thread is now AITA. I wanted honest opinions on what a raid was and how important they were for WoW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 I'd say being part of an online gaming guild or a tabletop group which meets regularly is something that requires commitment, akin to being in an amateur sports team and committing to being in the same place at the same time on a regular basis (despite it seeming to be a "just for fun" thing that's not that big a deal to outsiders). Obviously, skipping due to ill health, family members' ill health, kids' emergencies etc is expected, but not general flakiness, not feeling up to it etc, as you're letting other people down who are all giving up their time for this project. However, if you have a family member's birthday, something was organised beforehand and something that happens on the same date every year, that's a different matter and most people would be understanding of that. I suspect he forgot to tell the other people raiding that he had this other commitment and did not want to let them down at the last minute, although I suspect most people would be understanding of it. Rhom and Prince of the North 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 1 hour ago, Werthead said: I'd say being part of an online gaming guild or a tabletop group which meets regularly is something that requires commitment, akin to being in an amateur sports team and committing to being in the same place at the same time on a regular basis (despite it seeming to be a "just for fun" thing that's not that big a deal to outsiders). Obviously, skipping due to ill health, family members' ill health, kids' emergencies etc is expected, but not general flakiness, not feeling up to it etc, as you're letting other people down who are all giving up their time for this project. However, if you have a family member's birthday, something was organised beforehand and something that happens on the same date every year, that's a different matter and most people would be understanding of that. I suspect he forgot to tell the other people raiding that he had this other commitment and did not want to let them down at the last minute, although I suspect most people would be understanding of it. I agree. I think his WoW friends would have forgave him as well, if he had flaked on the raid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Ugh. I accidentally told Aerith to get out of here, instead of buying the flower. Now I have to reload my FF 7 play through. You must always buy a flower! Rhom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toth Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 (edited) On 3/2/2024 at 3:16 PM, Werthead said: I had one primary fleet that dealt with most stuff and a secondary one for when the primary one was too far away. ... aaand I already have five fleets mucking around! XD It didn't help that I had two Cylon fleets attacking Leonis and Canceron in the upper part of the war table, so I ended up dispatching two there, then have my shipyard forever parked home on Scorpia once I realized I can't auto-resolve battles with it and then two fleets for Helios Alpha and Helios Gamma, though I now sent my Helios Gamma fleet to Helios Alpha because the Cylons have started showing up with strength 4000 stacks and my Helios Alpha fleet is starting to loose ground. Right now one of these stacks is sitting atop Caprica and I have no means to make it go away with my old Helios Alpha fleet that is just one Adamant and four Manticores... one of which I recently lost during a mission protecting a refugee fleet from a bazillion Cylon corvettes. On 3/2/2024 at 3:16 PM, Werthead said: the Adamant is good for carrying Viper squadrons (pack enough and the Vipers can take care of an entire enemy fleet for you) For fun I made my Helios Beta fleet entirely out of Adamants and I must say, once I unlocked Viper Mk2s it's an impressive wall of guns. I was particularly impressed by the Mk2s ability to intercept missiles. With the Mk1 I often wondered why I even bothered putting them on "Defend at Location" between my ships and the Cylons every turn the Cylons had their missiles ready, because one squadron could take out one or two at most. Then I watched the M2s just utterly demolishing every ordinance pointed at me, with one or two at most getting through. Kinda makes me wonder why I'd even need Flak later on as long as I have a bunch of Vipers between me and the enemy, particularly given how crazy fast they are. Likewise, I'm using the vipers to scout for the enemy and mark them for my opening missile barrage because they are so ridiculously fast. Granted, so far the Cylons haven't really brought a lot of Raiders to bear, then I guess my Vipers would end up too busy to do these kinds of missions. On 3/2/2024 at 3:16 PM, Werthead said: IIRC the key is to get ticking along to get the Artemis battlestar (then the Minerva, Jupiter and, in show-era missions, the Mercury) and its incredibly powerful flak field. We'll see. I avoided the Ranger admittedly, because I have too much fun relying heavy on Vipers, so yesterday evening I unlocked the Artemis. I guess just in time for when the Cylons bring in the serious fleets. On 3/2/2024 at 3:16 PM, Werthead said: I forgot I did some videos when the game first game out. I also tried fooling around with the recording, but... is it just me or is it broken? Not only do I suffer from occasional crashes when I click on recording, the battles that I succeed in recording have some really weird metallic audio distortion to them. Don't really feel like sharing those because of it. Edited March 4 by Toth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 I fired up a new game to polish off the DLC (which I never finished) and I remembered more of what the hell I was doing. So I had four fleets in total, one in each system, though it can take a while to build up to that. Several fleets are very heavy hitters (a Jupiter, two Artemis, multiple Adamants), some are lighter and leftovers of early game periods when I didn't have as many advanced ships. The "Adamant Wall" is a worthy tactic, stack three or four Adamants on top of each other, move as a single unit at all times and have them broadsiding enemy units. When their armour starts going down, spin them 180 degrees to present their other side. The combined firepower of four side batteries whittles down most light-to-medium ships easily, and can provide significant supporting firepower to Battlestars when taking on Baseships. In one battle I even had them fly between two Baseships and inflicted heavy damage on both by firing out of both sides at once (only because the Baseships were focusing on Battlestars, though). The Artemis is relatively tough and its ventral battery is formidable. Have them fly right under enemy ships and they chew them to pieces. The Minerva has greater firepower but weaker armour, so it's probably better to use the cheaper-but-tougher Artemis as it can hang in the fight for longer. The Jupiter is extremely formidable but very slow; you need to have the Jupiter on speed-boost at almost all times, and it's still slower than the Artemis by a lot. But the Jupiter's firepower is deranged, especially if you can get into the sweet sport of being able to use the forward guns on one target and the ventral battery on another. Vipers, especially Viper Mk. IIs, can wipe out any opposing Cylon fighter squadron with ease, so a strong tactic is to use Vipers to mop up Cylon Raiders at the start of every battle, then use the Vipers to gang up on and destroy smaller enemy ships. 5-6 Viper squadrons will take out a Manticore usually in one round of firing, and even a Revenant in 2-3 rounds even if they don't have capital ships firing at them. Viper swarms are very powerful and it's easy to neglect or forget about them early on. For the DLCs, Broken Alliance and the Reinforcement Pack should be added to any playthrough of the base campaign. The former adds new story missions which can break up the moments when the OG game flags as you grind through side-missions to level up for the next main story mission. The latter adds some useful new units. Sin & Sacrifice, Resurrection, Ghost Fleet Offensive and Armistice all further the main story (some more plausibly than others) and should be played in that order. Anabasis adds the 33-style mode and can be played either with First Cylon War contemporary units or, in conjunction with the Modern Fleet Pack, the show-contemporary units like the Pegasus and Valkyrie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 13 hours ago, Toth said: I also tried fooling around with the recording, but... is it just me or is it broken? Not only do I suffer from occasional crashes when I click on recording, the battles that I succeed in recording have some really weird metallic audio distortion to them. Don't really feel like sharing those because of it. At the moment I can't record at all. It says it's done and then the resulting video is 0kbs and can't be opened. Annoying. I'm not sure why, but in this playthrough the enemy is very nuke-happy. I had a Cerebus Basestar (the one from the Razor TV movie) sneakily wait until my fleet was rotating and then hit me with two nukes simultaneously. One would have been survivable, but two blew my entire fleet to pieces in one go! My fault for having them in tight formation without flak fields operational (there was a full-on fighter furball on all sides so I couldn't use them without shredding my own fighters). I think I need to reset my Battlestar engagement tactics, they're a bit too aggressive at the moment. Orbiting the enemy fleet from a greater distance and letting fighters put in a lot of damage before moving the heavies in is a better idea, and gives you more reaction time to deal with incoming long-range ordinance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 This does look fantastic, and I'd happily play a single-player, solo or very limited multiplayer version of this. A full-on MMO is not my bag though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 I completed Final Fantasy Crisis Core Reunion and immediately started thr ‘sequel’, Final Fantasy VII Remake thereafter. Crisis Core was ok, bit of a chore. My copy of FFVII Rebirth arrived but god knows when I’ll complete Remake. Also just started Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition, and impatient to get through it to play thr sequel. All of this on PS5; my PC is almost 10 years old Rhom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Still making my way through Act 3 of Baldurs gate 3 and have put in nearly 150 hours into it by now….dunno how you guys finished it in less than 100 hours, this is a massive,massive game! On par with Witcher 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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